About this video

• Video Title: 15 Mistakes That Stop You Gaining Muscle After 50
• Channel: Will Harlow – Over-Fifties Specialist Physio
• Speakers: Will Harlow
• Duration: 00:45:31

Overview

This video by Will Harlow, a physiotherapist specializing in individuals over 50, identifies 15 common mistakes that hinder muscle and strength gains in this age group. It categorizes these mistakes into training, recovery, and nutrition/lifestyle, offering practical advice on how to correct them to achieve better results.

Key takeaways

• Training Mistakes:
  • Lifting too light: Not progressively overloading muscles by increasing weight or reps over time leads to plateaus.
  • Not tracking progress: Failing to record workouts makes it difficult to ensure progressive overload.
  • Too much cardio: Excessive cardio can interfere with muscle recovery and calorie surplus needed for muscle gain.
  • Avoiding compound exercises: Prioritizing isolation exercises over compound movements (like squats, deadlifts, bench press) is less time-efficient for overall muscle growth.
  • Bad form: Incorrect technique significantly increases injury risk, especially after 50, and hinders progress tracking.
  • Variety over progression: Constantly changing workout routines instead of sticking with a program for sufficient time (4-6 months) prevents progressive overload.
  • Not warming up properly: Insufficient warm-ups, especially dynamic movements and lighter sets of the planned exercises, increase injury risk for older adults.
  • Avoiding eccentric work: Neglecting the lowering phase of exercises (taking 3-4 seconds to lower the weight) limits muscle-building and injury-prevention benefits.
• Recovery Mistakes:
  • Training too often: Overtraining without adequate recovery time hinders muscle repair and growth, a critical factor that becomes more pronounced with age.
  • Not getting good sleep: Sleep is crucial for muscle repair and growth; insufficient or poor-quality sleep (less than 7-9 hours) significantly impacts gains.
  • Not taking a deload week: Regular light weeks (every 6-8 weeks) are necessary to recover from accumulated fatigue and prevent plateaus or regressions.
  • Not managing stress: Chronically high cortisol levels due to unmanaged stress can inhibit muscle development.
• Nutrition & Lifestyle Mistakes:
  • Not eating enough protein: Protein is essential for muscle repair and growth, and older adults often undereat it, impacting muscle mass. Aim for 1.2-2.2g per kg of body weight.
  • Eating too little overall: A chronic calorie deficit prevents muscle gain, as the body lacks the energy surplus needed for muscle synthesis.
  • Fear of carbs: Carbohydrates are the body's primary fuel source for intense workouts and are crucial for energy, performance, and protein sparing.
• Bonus Mistake:
  • Expecting progress overnight: Muscle and strength gains naturally slow down with age, requiring patience and consistency rather than expecting rapid results.

The video states that training too often, without adequate recovery, can be a mistake. The speaker shares his personal experience of increasing his gym sessions from three to six times a week, which initially seemed beneficial but eventually led to a plateau and even regression due to insufficient recovery. He notes that as people get older, their recovery takes longer, and what might be manageable for a younger person (like four sessions per week) might require fewer sessions for someone older (perhaps three). The key takeaway is that exceeding your body's capacity for recovery will lead to negative outcomes, regardless of how often you train.